variations of position for coitus.
Adler points out (op. cit., pp. 151, 186) the value of the same
positions in some cases, and remarks that such variations often
call forth latent sexual feelings as by a charm. Such cases are
indeed, by no means infrequent, the advantage of the unusual
position being due either to physical or psychic causes, and the
discovery of the right variation is sometimes found in a merely
playful attempt. It has occasionally happened, also, that when
intercourse has habitually taken place in an abnormal position,
no satisfaction is experienced by the woman until the normal
position is adopted. The only fairly common variation of coitus
which meets with unqualified disapproval is that in the erect
posture. (See e.g., Hammond, op. cit. pp. 257 et seq.)

Lucretius specially recommended the quadrupedal variation of
coitus (Bk. iv, 1258), and Ovid describes (end of Bk. iii of the
_Ars Amatoria_) what he regards as agreeable variations, giving
the preference, as the easiest and simplest method, to that in
which the woman lies half supine on her side. Perhaps, however,
the variation which is nearest to the normal attitude and which
has most often and most completely commended itself is that
apparently known to Arabic erotic writers as _dok el arz_, in
which the man is seated and his partner is astride his thighs,
embracing his body with her legs and his neck with her arms,
while he embraces her waist; this is stated in the Arabic
_Perfumed Garden_ to be the method preferred by most women.

The other most usual variation is the inverse normal position in
which the man is supine, and the woman adapts herself to this
position, which permits of several modifications obviously
advantageous, especially when the man is much larger than his
partner. The Christian as well as the Mahommedan theologians
appear, indeed, to have been generally opposed to this superior
position of the female, apparently, it would seem, because they
regarded the literal subjection of the male which it involves as
symbolic of a moral subjection. The testimony of many people
to-day, however, is decidedly in favor of this position, more
especially as regards the woman, since it enables her to obtain a
better adjustment and greater control of the process, and so
frequently to secure sexual